Unmasked Warmth
by Hiss13
Summary: For Mitsuari Ayu, starting at Tokiwadai Middle School came with a plethora of troubles. After all, middle school a troubling and turbulent time for many young girls. For that girl who desired nothing more than to escape her cage, solace came in the form of a small encounter. He was not someone amazing at first glance, but Kamijou Touma soon came to mean the world to her.
1. Prologue

Unlike many first romantic encounters, mine did not happen underneath a cherry blossom tree at the end of the year or in the back of a school after being called out with a love letter. Then again, with where I came from, I doubt it would ever have been right of me to ever expect that. This school of ojou-samas is just like that.

Many of us never had any experiences with the opposite sex outside our parents and teachers. Many of us never knew how to deal with males. It was even rarer for most of us to ever go outside of the School Garden whenever the Daihaseisai was not taking place.

Those of us who did were generally capable of dealing with problems on our own but even so, communication with the other sex was never a priority. Most of those odd encounters ended with us just cutting and running. Some of us lashed out. But, communication never came as a priority.

No matter how much our parents or Tokiwadai Middle School groomed us to grow to become proper ladies who would become heiresses, executives, and the like, that basic experience in communication never seemed to ever be a priority.

In the end, for us, that was fine. It was a new experience, a scary experience.

The prospects were never favorable.

So, many of us never needed to worry about the opposite sex. Honestly, for us, that was fine.

We could live our day to day lives without a care in the world without worrying about that strange, fuzzy feeling that comes from the pull towards another person.

But, I needed an escape. The world of Tokiwadai and the School Garden was far too stifling.

Because of that, I found him. He was not some genius esper, nor was he some great muscular man. He was no fallen delinquent who would whisk me away to a dirty, interesting world unseen nor was he some great hero who was destined to save the world. He was just an average looking spiky-haired boy.

But, to me, he meant everything. He was my escape and I, his.

This is tale of my wonderful and blissful, yet short-lived tragic romance with a boy named Kamijou Touma.

* * *

 **A/N: So, in the end, I couldn't leave Ayu alone. Thus begins my first forays into the world of romance. If you haven't guessed, this is not a sequel to "For the Girl Hiding Her Face" but rather a story that details my own little interpretation of Ayu's relationship with Touma prior to her suicide attempt. I'm honestly not sure if this has been done before, but eh. Treat me gently.**


	2. Chapter 1 - Aberrations and Dates

**Chapter 1**

 **Aberrations and Dates**

 **Part 1**

Despite the esteemed Tokiwadai being a prestigious middle school, its daily processes seemed to match what anyone would expect at a normal school. First was always the boring speech at the beginning of the year from the school's principle in front of an assembly of the school's entire student body in a ritzy auditorium (as opposed to a gymnasium).

For Mitsuari Ayu, sleeping in that assembly had been a very simple decision. She was in the middle of the first years who had been seated in English alphabetical order and as such was in the more dark areas where the light from the stage would have a difficult time touching.

The best part was that she seemed to wake up right before the end of the speech and was even awake to give applause. Truly, she was fitting into the life of an ojou-sama well.

Needless to say, classes seemed to fly by as the day ended half a day, all thanks to the magic of the day of the opening ceremony. Without even taking the time to talk to anyone, she immediately gathered her belongings and left the room without much of a hurry.

On her way to the bus that led her to the external dormitory, she had passed many colorful characters, people who she found to be far more impactful than her on first glance. There was some flat-chested blonde girl with stars in her eyes for example, who stood out far more than someone like Ayu.

But, to her, none of that really mattered. Even if she never particularly stood out, she would find some way to ease around a tough life at Tokiwadai. She was a Level 3 Mental Stinger. She had her way of getting around tough barriers.

In the end, there was more to being an oujo-sama than running around charging head forward into the next three years of her life without some cushion to fall back on when things got tough for her.

As she eventually made it to her dorm room, she had opened up the doors to find that her roommate had not even returned. It was understandable, after all. After dropping her school bag down onto her bed, she made her way to her laptop. As she flipped open to her mail, she found the expected e-mail from her parents.

It was the usual trite congratulatory nonsense with an undertone of 'or else' not so subtly embedded in it. There was the usual bit about how proud they were of their daughter getting into Tokiwadai. There was the usual nonsense about how they expected her to come out of middle school as a refined girl, suitable for being an executive in their company. It was the same old constricting, restricting nonsense.

As she read through that letter one last time, she gritted her teeth and pushed the laptop into sleep mode without even closing the mail. She found herself unable to even stomach looking at the mail even a second longer before storming out of the dorm room.

* * *

 **Part 2**

The first day of the school meant one thing to Mitsuari Ayu: a lack of work. Fortune truly shone upon her as that left her to do as she wanted, so long as she made it back to the dorms at the time of the restrictive curfew.

But, before this nice and carefree first day could start, she needed to acquire lunch. Ideally, the dormitory cafeteria would have been the easiest place to procure a meal.

 _I can't use the cafeteria for lunch…dinner, maybe. But, the more I stay at the cafeteria, the more the atmosphere of ojou-samas is going to stifle the air._

She just needed something quick to eat. That was definitely not something she could acquire at the cafeteria. Instead, she made her way to a nearby supermarket. She just needed to get her hands on a quick bento or sandwich. As she made her way down the sandwich section, she had found that a good number of the sandwiches had been sold out. All that was left was a single chicken sandwich. With not even a moment to spare, Ayu almost sprinted over to the sandwich and grabbed it.

"AHHHH!" A loud scream echoed out from behind as soon as Ayu pulled the sandwich off the off the shelves.

"Kyah!" She squeaked as her shoulders jumped up and she quickly pivoted about her feet to see the source of the scream. What she turned to see was a quite unimpressive person. He was a plain looking boy in a button down shirt and pants that were likely his school uniform. The only thing about him that really seemed to stand out was his spiked hair reminiscent of a hedgehog or sea urchin. In fact, that hair seemed to grab at her attention far more than his face of dismay.

"That's the last sandwich, isn't it…" He muttered.

"Um…yeah…?" Ayu looked back to the sandwich in her hands. It was a fairly unordinary sandwich but it was being sold at a low price and she had taken the last of them.

"Such misfortune…" The boy tried to make multiple glances around the area but the fact that the shelves were completely empty only seemed to throw his mood further and further off the deep end.

"That's what I get for procrastinating on my winter homework…no time to even cook…"

"Eh? Homework? But didn't we just come off a break?" Ayu performed the unladylike act of scratching her hair while staring off to the side.

"…"

"What? Don't just suddenly go grim without explaining yourself!" Ayu could say with one-hundred percent honesty that the way his expression had suddenly darkened for what she thought to be no reason was quite creepy. Was this normal when interacting with men?

"Do you Tokiwadai students not get homework over your breaks…?"

"Ah, is that the stuff I hear some students get pushed on them so they don't slack off?"

"Don't just nonchalantly start writing off my troubles as trivial one-by-one…" At this point, the poor boy was on the verge of tears. Boys truly were odd creatures. Ayu could feel an almost smug grin emerging on her face.

 _This could definitely be fun._

"Alright. I'll give you this sandwich on one condition."

The boy frowned after hearing Ayu's words and looking at her face. "I don't like where this is going…"

"Come on. It's not much. I just want you to accompany me for the rest of the day."

"If I say no?"

"Well, have fun looking for lunch since all the inexpensive stuff will have long since been taken by people like you." Ayu kept her grin as she dangled the sandwich in front of him.

* * *

 **Part 3**

Kamijou Touma never expected to end up carrying shopping bags for someone at the Dianoid on the first day of school. That great seventy story carbon-nanotube building towering over District 15 was an enigma to the relatively impoverished like him. Yet, there he was walking inside it shopping like any other customer. He was even carrying numerous bags from a variety of the expensive stores that were littered throughout the lower levels to the point where a number of them were put with their handles around his arms.

Truly, it was a surreal feeling for him. But, the prospects of shopping in the Dianoid were not too scary for one reason.

"What do you think of this one, Kamijou-senpai?" Mitsuari Ayu waved a cute-looking diamond encrusted bracelet with a teardrop-shaped blue gem, which she was trying out on her wrist, in front of Touma. As he looked down to her wrist, he gave off a sigh.

"It looks fine on you. Though is it really alright to ask a guy who likely has zero sense of fashion?"

"Well, the only other person here is the clerk and she's just going to be sycophantic so that I'll buy more of the store's merchandise."

"And did you not consider the possibility that I might say 'yeah, yeah, it looks great on you' so that I could get this over with more quickly?"

The gears of Ayu's mind began to turn as she realized the likely consequence of dragging someone along with her. Of course, the opinions they let out may never be genuine. Luckily, she had the cheat code that would help her determine whether he was lying or not. With a luminescent blush on her face, she pulled out a high-end smart phone from her pocket and switched on the camera. Pointing the lens at his face, she quickly hit the shutter button and sent a simple command into his brain.

 _Subject_000:/Forget your previous answer and be honest with me!_

As soon as she was certain this command reached the boy's brain, he started to shake and wobble as his knees locked. He reflexively grabbed at his head with his right hand, exhibiting symptoms of nausea. As soon as he did, his wobbling and shaking immediately stopped.

"Ugh…what was that…?" Kamijou questioned why he felt nauseous at the sight of Ayu's camera lens. "Did you do something…?"

"So, what do you think about this? Does it look good on me?" Ayu asked Kamijou again, showing off the bracelet on her wrist. However, she failed to notice that her connection had been cut and her order negated.

"I told you, didn't I?" Kamijou spoke while keeping an eye closed and continuing to rub his head. "It looks fine on you."

But, as soon as Ayu heard this, she immediately frowned. _He told me…wait…I thought I commanded him to forget his previous answer._

In a panic, she sent an identical command to Kamijou Touma's brain. Just like before, however, he rubbed at his forehead. "So, what do you think about this? Does it look good on me?"

"How many times are you going to keep asking the same question." He was starting to get visibly annoyed. "I already told you my answer…and why do you keep pointing your phone at me?"

" _Forget your previous answers and be honest with me!"_ She focused on the smartphone camera on the boy's face once more while calling out her command this time, making sure that it was not accidentally misfired. "So, what do you think about this? Does it look good on me?"

He simply tapped his head, much like he was putting pressure on a throbbing headache. "Seriously, you're even repeating the same question and giving some weird commands. Is something wrong with you?"

A vibrant blush began to form on Ayu's face as she realized that he had heard her command this time. But, there was an even bigger issue beyond her command being heard. "Why isn't it working on you…?" If she was aware of her facial expressions, Ayu would not have been donning the unladylike pout that seemed to divide attention with that blush.

It was at that moment that Touma realized exactly what was going on. "Oh…you're a telepath, aren't you?"

"Level 3 Mental Stinger." She forced out in a soft voice while still maintaining her pout.

The boy looked down to his right hand with a distant stare before sighing and looking at Ayu. "My right hand can negate Esper abilities. So, telepathy doesn't really do anything to me."

Ayu was unable to even find a response. While the severity of her pout definitely lessened, she still found the answer she received to be unpleasant to say the least. Mental Stinger was an ability that could insert information into any target's brain. The only real exceptions were electromasters and other telepaths.

Yet, someone else who seemed to have no indication that he was either was immune to it too. It was frustrating to say the least. After all, she was dealing with someone else she had no ability to hold control over.

"If you're that worried about me being honest, don't be. I will admit that I do want to get this whole escapade over with quickly but I would figure some other way besides being a yes-man…seeing as we're still here, after all. So, I'll repeat myself. It looks fine on you."

"You're sure about that?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright…fine…I'll believe you." She turned back to the clerk. "I'll take this."

"Really…it's probably better for someone else to trust me more than I trust myself." The boy muttered while clenching his fist. His eyes darted back to his hand as his face took on a more melancholy smile. "It feels…nice…"

However, Ayu, lost in her enjoyment failed to hear a single word he spoke. Once she had received her new purchase in another bag, she turned to give it to Touma. However, as soon as she faced him, his melancholy gaze collapsed into a face one could only describe as exasperated. "So, Kamijou-senpai. Where do you think, next?"

"How about home? My arms are starting to get really tired. Besides, I always thought schools like Tokiwadai had a curfew."

"Eh?" At that moment Ayu's shopping high came to a sudden crash. She pulled out the cell phone and looked at the time. Once she saw the time, her heart stopped. Exactly as Kamijou had suggested, the time was nearing curfew and the amount of spare time she had was dropping. She faced him again with an expression of pure panic as she realized that her little escapades had caused her to completely lose track of time. "Ahhhh…what do I do?"

"I can escort you to your dormitory. At the very least, you probably won't be able to carry all of these bags on your own." Kamijou gave a quick answer to alleviate Ayu's worries.

"Really?" A hint of relief began to wash over her face as her tear ducts began to overflow slightly. Regardless of how mature of a front she may have tried to put on, she was still a freshly matriculated middle schooler. She could not help but resort to her inner childishness every so often.

The boy pulled back all of the shopping bags hanging on his right arm back to his arm and patted Ayu's head in reassurance.

* * *

 **Part 4**

Just as promised, Kamijou Touma brought Ayu to the doorstep of Tokiwadai's External Dormitory. Since curfew had not yet started, buses were still available for use. While they could not get one directly to the dormitory itself, they did get one that would lead fairly close. Afterwards, only a few minutes of walking was necessary.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to enter this building." Kamijou Touma stared at the dormitory building with the bags still on his arms. He stared at the magnificent structure that was the Tokiwadai External Dormitory, realizing how much this building dwarfed his own in terms of extravagance. After all, he never expected to see a set of Roman columns standing at the entranceway of the building. What was even more striking was the effect it seemed to have on his brain. It was the same subconscious reflex that kept men from wanting to enter a lingerie shop or a girl's locker room on instinct.

"Probably not…If you want, I can sneak you in." Ayu gave him a glowing look of anticipation. However, Kamijou did not seem to agree as his face took on a more distraught turn. It was almost as if he were trying to say 'are you serious'. He likely did not want to get seen inside a girl's dormitory, after all. "Yeah. That's probably not the best idea. Just leave them by the doorstep. My room's on the first floor so I can just cart them all to my room."

"Alright, then." As directed, he left them at the entrance. "I should probably get going then."

"Ah, wait!" Before Touma could turn and walk away, Ayu pulled out her smartphone. "Give me your cell phone number and e-mail address." She seemed to have a big, glowing grin as she asked him for this. "Today was fun. So, I wanna keep you in my contacts."

Touma slowly put his hand to his pocket. "Are you really okay with this?" He asked, pulling out and opening his flip phone.

"You didn't enjoy today?"

"I wouldn't say I absolutely loved it, but…I can't say I didn't enjoy it."

"Right? So just exchange numbers with me, 'kay?"

Kamijou sighed. "Fine."

With that, the two exchanged numbers and e-mails via their phones' infrared information transfer systems. "Oh, one more thing. Smile~" The girl pressed the shutter button on her camera phone.

"Huh?"

Rather than sending a packet of information through her camera, she simply took a picture. Luckily for her, it had been a decent shot of Kamijou confused with an eyebrow raised. "Yep. This is cute. It'll do." She said with a childish giggle, setting that picture with Kamijou's contact information.

"Well, whatever suits you." Kamijou gave a short chuckle while the girl put the phone back in her skirt pocket.

"Thanks." She said, turning around and heading to the first set of doors. Before opening it up, she turned her head back to see Kamijou Touma already walking away, but keeping his right hand up to wave behind himself. After seeing that, she simply smiled to herself and started to pick up the shopping bags one by one to pull into a cart.

* * *

 **Part 5**

"You're barely back in time for curfew, Ayu-san." A girl in pajamas said, walking out of the bathroom with a towel hanging around her neck. She held a bundle of her long black ponytail in her hand and fiddled around with it in her fingers. "And you brought way too many shopping bags with you. Please don't tell me you went and bought everything in store."

"I didn't, Saya." Ayu sat up from the bed she comfortably laid on with her arms sprawled to the side. "Besides, the shopping was more for an atmosphere kind of thing. The Dianoid really does have wonderful aesthetics."

"So you don't mind if I look through some of your stuff and see if you bought anything interesting?"

"Knock yourself out." She picked out her smartphone and looked at her newly acquired contact with a smile. In the end, what she had bought were random meaningless trinkets. They were cheap objects that she would eventually throw away.

From that standpoint, her excursion was meaningless. But, even so….

 _I've found something far more fun to enjoy._ She thought to herself. For someone like her, that small connection with a friend outside the School Garden was all she needed from that day and she would make sure to enjoy that to its fullest.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, here goes Chapter 1. Keeping in tune with his first encounters with the other Tokiwadai girls who fell for him, I turned the first encounter into something purely coincidental. I ultimately came to the realization that Touma had a lot more leeway with money before Index came into his life.**

 **Being that I ultimately had very little information to go on about Ayu's life before her suicide, I ultimately went with choosing to have her be a bit more rebellious. She is a middle schooler after all.**

 **That being said, my update schedule for this one will be sporadic for one reason: I'm writing this as I go along. While I have the general flow of events in my head, fleshing it out will take some time...and considering I have multiple other personal projects and obligations to work on...Well, I'll definitely keep on updating this, just not at a consistent weekly schedule..**

 **For now, I lay down my pen until the next installment~**


End file.
